The Echelon Project
and the New McCarthyism

DRAWING THE LINE

Now,
let me get one thing straight, I do not like snooping. Not even
on the French. In fact, I am all in favour of privacy; I judge
it as high as motherhood and apple pie. Hell I even have a pseudonym
and write for a Libertarian site, how much more private can I
get? However, there is one thing thatís really spooking me, whatís
going on in the European Parliament in the name of privacy nuts
like me. A new hysteria is starting to take over the political
classes, and it does not look pretty.

THE ECHELON PROJECT
Ė WHAT THEY CLAIM

"This
carís never done more than three thousand miles, and had a very
careful eighty year old granny as its only owner". It seems that
boosterism is, well, boosted by these people most of all. Not
so, it seems. There are some boosters who do better than any dodgy
chevy dealer could dream of. These people are whoever is behind
this echelon
scare.
Echelon, letís remember, is the spy
system
that was set up by the dear old National
Security Agency, aided
and abetted by the usual suspects of the Australians,
Canadians
and Limeys.
It is aimed at the internet that Al Gore created. It aims to bug,
pry, spy and do all sorts of nasty things to the Internet This
is not the spectacular thing about it, but it is the claims of
what it can do. It can, we are told, intercept every e-mail
that is sent. It can intelligently screen all these e-mails
and alert the authorities to the most subversive of them. I must
not forget the spectacular enhancement of the bugging prowess
of the NSA. However, we do seem to be forgetting one thing Ė human
beings.

THE ECHELON PROJECT
Ė WHAT THEY CAN ACTUALLY DO

The
idea that human beings can program computers to note every e-mail
of a dubious nature, and screen out enough innocuous e-mails to
not overload the snoopers without missing the important e-mails,
thatís preposterous. Just think about how much e-mail you send,
each day. Then think about how many of these goes to mailing lists,
with each of these e-mails will be created individually. Then
think about how most of our armchair bellyaching about Kosovo,
Europe or Echelon is rather small beer in the scheme of things.
If they are watching us, they are wasting their time; the Internet
cannot be controlled, although I have no doubt that they
want to control it.
If they are watching us, they are missing the French bribers,
the drug smugglers and the cabinet ministers that they are aimed
at. We do not have to worry, and the fact that many of us have
is the triumph of some dodgy software salesmen.

ITíS NOT CIVIL LIBERTIES

In
an exercise of Soviet propaganda, the EU "Parliament" referred
Echelon to its Civil Liberties committee. Actually look at what
it was reporting on, the inability of French and German companies
to bribe without being found out and being snitching on. This
may be an area that the US has no legitimate interest, after all
it is not American money, but is bribery really a civil liberty?
Even for the Italians?

ARE YOU, OR HAVE YOU
EVER BEEN, AN AMERICAN?

Why
do I need to write this article? I am not trying to start a group
called Libertarians for Snooping or Anti-Interventionists for
Global Spying; nor do I intend to be antiwar.comís resident neo-conservative.
All I want to do is put this into perspective. The European "Parliament"
has commissioned a set of hearings on
the Echelon project.
Is this starting to sound familiar? They have then called "experts"
who seem to be more expert in political posturing than in their
alleged fields of expertise. These experts then denounce the required
evil, and receive the required publicity and attendance expenses.
Are certain eerie similarities coming through? In the end the
committee (the European
Parliament Civil Liberties Committee
- letís call them the High Un-European Affairs Committee Ė or
HUAC for short) produce a report showing that the United States
is ranged against the EU. Not only that but the US can tell when
the average Burgundian blows his nose and, Mon Dieu, they have
willing accomplices at the very heart of Europe, the dastardly
English. Well, if you can not see the similarities yet, then I
am not going to ruin your bliss by telling you, just look at the
title of the piece if you have any doubts.

Emmanuel
Goldstein is the pseudonym of a political drifter on the fringes
of English classical liberal and Euro-sceptic activity. He is a
former member of the Labour Party, who knows Blair and some of his
closest buddies better than they realise, yet. He has a challenging
job in the real world, working for a profit-making private company
and not sponging off the taxpayer in politics, journalism or the
civil service. "Airstrip One," appears Wednesdays at Antiwar.com.

SLUR ON JOE

On
one level, this is unfair, to Joe McCarthy. McCarthy, it must
be remembered, actually had a very good point; there was a large
amount of communists in very senior positions. Indeed, considering
Rooseveltís indifference to ideology and the rapid expansion of
the Federal bureaucracy, it would be amazing if the American government
was not brim full with Commies. However, does the EU have
any case to make on Echelon? Well, not really? They come up with
a number of arguments, none of them satisfactory:

THE US GOVERNMENT SHOULD
NOT SPY ON ITS ALLIES

Unless
you believe that all government is superfluous, and the EU clearly
does not, then one of the purposes of Government is to organise
defence of the realm. One of the facets of that defence is to
provide intelligence. In addition, intelligence on allies is probably
more important than intelligence on enemies.

THE US HAS NO INTEREST
IN CONTINENTAL EUROPE

That
may be true, but why was Europe so keen on America fighting for
it in Kosovo?

GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT
BE USING ITS MILITARY TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGE

This
is perfectly true, but it is hardly a uniquely American trait.
After all the French President, François Mitterrand used
to use French state money to pay for the German Christmas Democrats,
with a substantial commercial payoff. The fact that it is inappropriate
would run better if the French were more appropriate themselves.

THIS INTERFERES IN
CIVIL LIBERTIES

Yes,
but in American, British and Australian civil liberties. Those
liberties are for us to reclaim, we need no help from the continent.
Where they find out views of French and German citizens, this
is not an intrusion into French or German civil liberties as these
are not the domestic governments. They only intrude on French
liberties when the French government is aware of the problems.
This can be side-stepped by politely refusing the knowledge.

I am not meaning
to say that the use by our Governments of the Echelon network
is anything less than sinister, and its use for commercial reasons
is appropriate. What I am saying is that this is not a new red
menace, but everyday Government misbehaviour, and should be treated
as such.

WHY DOES THE EU CARE?

In
the end the toughest question is why, is the EU interested? Despite
an incredibly good imitation at times, these people are not stupid
and they must realise that this is not a particularly bad or unusual
problem. What is in it is the opportunity to fan the anti American
flames. In the end, most pro-Europeanism can be reduced down to
a vulgar anti-Americanism. If the European Parliament can fan
anti-American sentiments then they will strengthen their hand.
Just remember this when you are next asked to fight a war for
European Union, whether in Kosovo or Austria, your sons and brothers
are dying for the people who hate you most.

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